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syllabus

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Overview

Description

This course covers fundamental and advanced concepts and methods involving deep neural networks for solving problems in data classification, prediction, visualization, and reinforcement learning. Students will learn how to

  • read data files of various formats and visualize characteristics of the data,
  • perform statistical analyses on multivariate data,
  • develop and apply classification algorithms to classify multivariate data,
  • develop and apply regression algorithms for finding relationships between data variables,
  • develop and apply reinforcement learning algorithms for learning to control complex systems,
  • write scientific reports on computational machine learning methods, results and conclusions,
  • use the latest features in python, including jupyter notebooks, and
  • how to repeat experiments described in on-line tutorials, documentation, and publications in deep learning.

For implementations we will be using Python. Previous experience with Python and its numpy package is helpful. To prepare for this course, please download and install Python on your computer, and work through on-line tutorials to help prepare for this course. The Anaconda distribution is recommended, which is a free download for all platforms.

CS440 is the prerequesite for this course. However, CS445 provides a more relevant background for the material in CS545. Some of the CS445 topics will be revisited in CS545. The main difference between CS545 and CS445 is the scale of the assignments, more material relates to Pytorch and Tensorflow, and discussions of recent papers in the research literature on deep learning.

Class meetings will be a combination of lectures by the instructor, discussions of students' questions, and some student presentations in class. All questions are welcome, no matter how simple you think they are; it is always true that someone else has a similar question. It is critical that everyone in class respect each other when questions are asked and answers are suggested and at all times. Please contact the instructor when you have felt disrespect from other students, the instructor, or the graduate teaching assistants. This may be anonymous if you prefer.

A lot of material will be covered in this course. Students are expected to speak up in class with questions and observations they have about the material. Do not expect to be able to complete all assignments working on your own and without asking any questions. If you find yourself wondering what the next step is in finishing an assignment, please feel free to e-mail the instructor. You may also discuss assignments with other students directly, or via our Piazza Discussion board, but your code and report must be written by you. Do not post code on the Piazza Discussion board as part of your question nor as part of your answer.

You are expected to be familiar with the CS Department policy on cheating and with the CS Department Code of Conduct found at the department's Policies & Resources web page. This course will adhere to the CSU Academic Integrity Policy as found on the Student Responsibilities page of the CSU General Catalog and in the Student Conduct Code. At a minimum, violations will result in a grading penalty in this course and a report to the Office of Student Resolution Center.

Time and Place

Class meets every Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30 PM - 1:45 PM, on-line as a Microsoft Teams meeting that you can find at this link. You may download Microsoft Teams apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux from this link at Microsoft.

During the lecture please leave your microphone muted. if you have a question or comment, feel free to interrupt the lecture by unmuting yourself and saying something like “Excuse me, I have a question”. Questions and comments are always welcome!! I cannot guarantee that I will notice comments that you type in the Chat box.

Prerequisites

CS440 with a grade of C or better, and some experience with python.

Textbook

There are no required text books for this course. Readings may be assigned from the following on-line books.

From Python to Numpy by Nicolas P. Rougier

Deep Learning by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, and Aaron Courville

Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction, by Richard Sutton and Andrew Barto, 2nd edition

Instructors

Office Hours Contact
Chuck Anderson Computer Science Building
Room 444
10 - 11am
MS Teams Link
chuck.anderson@colostate.edu
970-491-7491
GTA:
Dejan Markovikj
Dejan.Markovikj@colostate.edu

Grading

Your grade for this course will be based on six to eight assignments, each of which will require the submission of a jupyter notebook that includes text descriptions of your methods, results and conclusions and the python code for defining machine learning algorithms, loading data and applying your algorithms to the data. Each notebook will be graded for correct implementation and results, thorough discussion of your code and observations of results, and good organization, grammar and spelling. No quizzes or exams will be given.

Semester letter grades will include plus and minus grades. Assume standard ranges of numerical grades will be used. Ranges might be shifted a little lower, depending on the grade distribution at the end of the semester, but they will not be raised.

Some assignments will include extra credit points. These will be accumulated during the semester. At the end of the semester, if your grade is just below a letter grade cutoff, the extra credit points might push you up to the higher grade. Each extra credit point is roughly worth 1/2 a percent. For example, if your grade is 88% and the cutoff or A- is 90%, four extra credit points will bump your grade up to an A-.

Late reports will not be accepted, unless you make arrangements with the instructor at least two days before the due date.

syllabus.1598300124.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/08/24 14:15 (external edit)